Pages tagged "Topic international elections"

At the end of an unusual election campaign, New Zealand's Mixed-Member Proportional Representation (MMP) electoral system has delivered Kiwis a strong mandate for the current government, with the first time a single party has won a majority of seats since the nation replaced U.S.-style plurality voting elections with MMP in 1993. The election also demonstrated many of the advantages that such fair representation voting systems have over the single-member plurality systems so often used in American elections.

Hot on the heels of electoral reforms last year, small Caribbean island nation Trinidad and Tobago has abandoned plurality voting in favor of runoff voting in its national elections. FairVote is keeping close watch on Trinidad and Tobago, as political parties, legislators and citizens continue to discuss voting systems, including ranked choice voting and fair representation voting, and agitate for reform.

Australia's Senate is elected by a method of ranked choice voting that forces voters to rank every candidate on the ballot. But after a variety of quirky minor parties have made their way into the Senate, it might be time to allow voters the freedom to not rank all candidates.

In India's election of the 16th Lok Sabha, the BJP appeared to win a landslide victory, winning a majority of seats. In reality, India's winner-take-all system generated significant disproportionality, artificially inflating BJP's mandate.

South Africa's fifth general election since the end of the apartheid era brought another victory for the ruling ANC, but their support has been wavering. The proportional representation system, originally advocated by Mandela, has brought proportional outcomes to South African elections.

Tasmanian House of Assembly elections have been decided using ranked choice voting in multi-member districts for over 100 years. This year's contest once again demonstrated the value of such systems for ensuring fair representation for voters of all stripes, even as a significant shift in power occurred.